This week’s Time Capsule looks at a pony contest, poisoned dogs, tax collections, a new courthouse and a television pilot.

100 years ago …

In Friday, Oct. 31, 1913 edition of the Marietta Journal and Courier, the front page reported a contest amongst Marietta merchants through Jan. 28, 1914 to give away a Shetland Pony. The contest, sponsored by the Marietta Journal, The Gem and Princess Theatres, W.A. Florence, Myrtice Allgood, Z.T. Gann and T.W. Read, would allow children under 16 to receive a vote coupon with every purchase or payment on an account. At the end of the contest, the child with the largest number of votes would win the pony.

50 years ago …

The Sheriff’s Office reported in the Friday, Oct. 25, 1963 Marietta Daily Journal that they had received several calls of dogs being poisoned with tainted meat thrown or placed within yards in the LaBelle Park, Jones-Shaw Road area.

A mother and her infant son were reported hospitalized in the Sunday, Oct. 27, 1963 paper after suffering burns in a string of blasts that shook their Fair Oaks home the Friday before. Fire department officials and police believed the explosions were caused by a broken gas line after a newly installed sewer pipe was put in with a ditch digging machine.

In the Monday, Oct. 28, 1963 paper, it was reported that a 19-year-old black burglary suspect was shot twice by an officer inside the Cherokee Grocery on Cherokee Street. The shots hit the man under the right eye and in the back, but he was listed at Kennestone Hospital as in good condition. The patrolling officers had found the door to the grocery partly opened and entered the store. As they were about to leave, the suspect stood up from behind a counter and pointed a pistol at them, which lead to a gunfire exchange.

The Cobb Tax Commissioner was reported in the Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1963 paper as having 30 working days to collect over $5 million. At that rate, the office would have to collect $185,000 each day. All county taxes were to be paid by Dec. 20, 1963, but due to a tax equalization program and a court injunction against the tax process, collections were delayed until Thursday, Oct. 24. Since collections began, the tax office had only taken in $28,000.

A writ of mandamus seeking to force the county to construct a new courthouse was reported in the Thursday, Oct. 31, 1963 paper as having been dismissed by Cobb Superior Court Judge James Manning. County Attorney Raymond Reed, in presenting a general demurrer for dismissal, argued that the question was not for the court to decide. He also pointed out that the county had vetoed the courthouse bond issue three times. He also said that county officials would have to raise the tax millage to meet the cost of a new courthouse building and that the tax hike was so high that the county decided it was out of the question.

20 years ago …

In the Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1993 MDJ, it was reported that four Cherokee County volunteer firefighters were facing charges of arson. The suspects were arrested and charged in three fires that occurred over the past two months involving an abandoned home and two vacant lots. Two of the firefighters confessed to setting the blazes. The case unraveled as fire officials began to piece together a string of suspicious fires in the North Canton district with one common thread – the same responding firefighters.

Cobb commissioners were reported in the Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1993 paper as having unanimously approved preliminary designs for an $8.1 million State Court Building that would help alleviate the overcrowding in Cobb’s judicial complex. The new 95,000-square foot building was to be located between the county’s two administrative buildings just east of the Marietta Square. The design was similar to existing judicial buildings with pedestrian plazas and walkways.

Just like recent filming on the Marietta Square, the Marietta City Council was reported in the Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1993 paper as having approved a pilot television episode to be filmed in a city neighborhood. ABC television had chosen Arden Drive in Ward 2 for “The Mommy Track,” a talk-show look at successful women with children. The episode was one of five segments of ABC’s upcoming pilot series, “American Streets,” which would examine aspects of American life from neighborhood settings around the country.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

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